Vision reveal

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Emerging freshly from the state of Texas, Fort Smith Public School’s new superintendent Doug Brubaker ushers in plans towards improvement within the district. Formerly a Dallas-Fort Worth school administrator, Brubaker imposed various improvements, from up to date technology to implementing improved security measures throughout the Texas area.

With his arrival, Brubaker established a new initiative for Fort Smith Schools entitled “Vision 2023.” The program aims to better local schools by bringing together a variety of community contributors. This group includes students, teachers and other locals. The Strategic Planning Committee housed 37 people. Southside representation among this gathering includes students Dania Rahal and Okla Ben Smith, as well as Spanish teacher Laura Smith.

“We had a lot of people from the communities and the schools all working together to hopefully move our school and our district into the future with a lot of great ideas and input from the community. It was very positive, it was very supportive. People felt able to share what they truly thought” Laura Smith said.

The Strategic Planning Committee laid-out a set of beliefs, a mission statement, as well as strengths and weaknesses within the school district. Most importantly, the team selected five areas to focus on. One of the areas is “Strategies” with seven areas of action. Brubaker intends to form teams of 25 members for each of the seven areas.

“Our goals were mainly to set the goals for where we want the school system to be in 5 years. Action teams will be forming later this year, and they will outline specific steps to reach the goals that we outlined as well as execute those plans” Senior Okla Ben Smith said.

The seven areas of action are wellness, learning environment/facilities, instruction, staffing, equity, career planning and technology. Development of the areas included all members of the committee. Members divided into groups and brainstormed what they believed they valued the most. Then all groups congregated in the main room and organize similarites and differences. A final revision group shortened the list, and the revision process would cycle again until the final drafts were made.

“I did not actually get to work in a small group for the mission statement because I volunteered to be on the first revision group for the belief statements, but it was essentially the same process for both of them” senior Dania Rahal said.

Members of the Strategic Planning Committee accomplished a set of beliefs, a mission, objectives, parameters and strategies over three meetings in August. The next scheduled meeting on September 18, includes the seven new action committees.